Grasses, non-food crops, and agricultural waste have shown potential as a cost-effective “green” feedstock for biofuel and pulp/paper production and have become the subject of extensive research programs during the last decade. However, due to the limited amount of biomass that can be removed from the topography of a given land site, biomass must be transported from field to processor, adding costs to the manufacturing process. In addition, during the production of pulp and paper products, significant energy is required for heating, as well as relatively large quantities of chemical catalyst (typically sodium hydroxide in excess of 25% by volume), adding to the expense of manufacturing. It would therefore be beneficial to have an economically viable system and technology for processing plant biomass to produce feedstock ingredients for the bioenergy industry and/or green chemicals industry, as well as for the manufacture of pulp and paper products.